A not-so-spooky date night
by EllaNight
Summary: "As much as she loves Halloween with their kids, she wasn't too upset at having a night off with her husband and the loft all to themselves." A post-series one-shot.


**A/N: Apologies for posting this late, unfortunately my Grandmother passed away this week and I ran out of time to finish this story to post before Halloween. Hopefully some of you are still in a spooky mood! A special thank you to Linda for the great prompt and to Becca for being the best beta! Love you both! I hope you all enjoy this fluffy Caskett family moment!**

* * *

"You're absolutely sure you don't want your Mom and I to come with you?" Castle asks the twins for about the tenth time that night and Kate has to make a conscious effort not to roll her eyes.

"_Yes_, Dad. We wanna go with Lexi this year," Jake insists, holding onto his big sister's hand.

"Yeah, _Dad_. We'll be fine, trust me," Alexis reassures him, leaning in to give her father a quick kiss on the cheek. He doesn't seem convinced though. He and Kate have gone trick-or-treating with the kids for the past ten years and not accompanying them this year just feels… weird.

Not to mention the twins look absolutely adorable in their costumes. Jake is a young Luke Skywalker, yielding a lightsaber and although Castle had really hoped Reece would continue in the Star Wars theme, he had to admit their youngest looked remarkably cute as The Boy Who Lived, with a lightning bolt scar in the middle of his forehead and thick round glasses.

"What about you, Reece? I've got my matching Gryffindor robe if you want us to come along and you know your Mom makes a great Hermione." He makes a last attempt to convince them he knows is weak when he turns towards Kate and she's shaking her head at him.

He honestly can't believe his wife isn't on his side here!

Reece shakes his head at him, too. "We're okay, Dad. Lexi even said we could go see if there are ghosts in the park after we get all our candy!" He says, rocking on the balls of his feet excitedly.

"_Da-ad_! Come on, I'm going to be late to the dance if you keep stalling us like this," Lily implores, tugging on Alexis's other hand. His youngest daughter is 14 now, apparently too old for trick-or-treating, and going to her first school dance instead. He sends a thankful prayer up to the universe that she insisted on being a zombie this year. The gruesome makeup should help keep the boys away from her for the night.

"Alright you guys, your Dad is just a bit nostalgic tonight," Kate steps up beside him, lacing her fingers through his and giving him a reassuring squeeze before crouching down to be eye level with the twins. "I want both of you to promise you're going to be safe tonight and listen to your sister Alexis. No arguing or I've told her to bring you straight home," she warns and the boys both nod enthusiastically.

"We promise!" They say in unison.

"Good," she sneaks in a kiss on both their cheeks before they manage to cringe away in disgust.

"Ew, Mom, stop!"

Kate ignores their protests even as they wipe at their cheeks with the sleeves of their costumes and rises to look at Lily. "And you," she lays her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "You look great. Have fun and keep those boys away if you want to save your old Dad a heart attack," she jokes, shooting Castle a grin over her shoulder.

"Hey! I'm not that old." Castle objects and she can hear the pout in his voice. The kids giggle at his indignation and she turns to Alexis, wrapping her arms around the young woman she considers just as much her daughter as Castle's.

"Thank you for this. You're really making their night."

"It's my pleasure, really. And besides, it'll be good practice," she grins, her hand coming down to rest over the bump on her belly. "I'll pick Lily up from the dance when the boys are done getting candy and we've rid the park of ghosts."

"Sounds like a great plan," Kate approves. "Have fun you guys."

"Be safe and listen to your sister!" Castle calls out as they hastily bolt for the door, waving their parents goodbye.

Kate turns to face her husband when she closes the door behind their kids, smirking at him.

"Our babies don't want us to go trick-or-treating with them anymore," Castle sighs and her smirk turns into an empathetic smile. Kate drifts towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist in comfort. She feels him rest his cheek at the top of her head, nuzzling her hair and holding her close.

"I know, babe," she says, pulling away so she can meet his eyes. "But you know they'll have an amazing time with Alexis and if we had brought Lily to the dance, I probably wouldn't have been able to get you to leave."

"How come she's already going to dances in eighth grade?" he asks incredulously. "She's way too young to have boys preying on her at fourteen." Kate laughs at the murderous look in his eyes.

"Castle, I'm pretty certain school dances happened around the same time for us. And don't think I didn't notice how much effort you put into that zombie makeup to ensure it was as gruesome as possible."

"Hey! That's what she wanted. You can't blame me for being exceptionally good at zombie makeup."

She hums, his words taking her back to what seems like a lifetime ago, when they'd been teetering on the edge of more than friends but less than lovers, both of them wanting more and hanging on to the promise of her walls coming down. "You _are_ really good at the zombie makeup." Kate lifts one of her hands from his waist to brush his hair away from his forehead.

"And how are you so calm about all of this? I half expected you to go all protective Mama-bear like you did on the twins' first day of school."

She glares at him for that. "Like you were any better. I seem to remember you being the one to bring the binoculars," she challenges.

"Didn't stop you from using them," he quirks an eyebrow at her and she can't help the small smile that tugs at the corner of her lips.

"Well as much as I love Halloween with our kids, I wasn't too upset with having a night off with my husband with the loft all to ourselves." Kate lowers her voice to a tone she usually reserves for the bedroom, deliberately teasing him and relishing in the way his eyes visibly darken a few shades.

She turns away from him, lacing her fingers through his and tugging on his hand so he follows her into the kitchen. She opens the fridge to find the wine she knows is already there, the one that always manages to make her feel… in the mood.

Castle recognizes the label right away and groans, pulling her against him, his arms splaying at her stomach, her back pressed snuggly against his chest.

"Why Senator Beckett, I had no idea you intended to make this a date night," he whispers against her ear, sending shivers down her spine when he nips at her lobe.

She gasps when his lips begin to trail kisses along the side of her neck, smiles at his enthusiasm, giddy with how much he still wants her after all these years. They'll never get enough of each other; she knows that with certainty now. Their passion has survived the test of time, of three kids, and a brutal political campaign.

They've always come out of it stronger.

Kate spins in his arms, catching his lips with hers, giving in for a few seconds and letting herself get lost in the familiar taste on his tongue.

"Let's watch a movie," she suggests when she pulls away, laughs when he chases her mouth. "We can watch something gory," she suggests. He's making it incredibly hard to think when his hands continue to skate up her sides, his thumbs slipping below the cotton of her shirt, flirting at her hip bones. Oh, but she had such a nice plan for tonight. "We'll make some popcorn and drink wine."

He hums against her skin, his tongue swiping at her collarbone, and she has to concentrate to stop her hips from canting into his. "Sounds nice," he agrees. "And after the movie?" He asks, his eyebrows wiggling suggestively until she laughs, but she seals her lips to his, her bruising kiss an evident promise of later. And then she pulls away.

"It's my turn to pick out the movie, you make the popcorn," she suggests, squeezing his hand again and heading towards the living room. She grins to herself as she reaches their expansive movie collection, doesn't have to think twice before picking up her choice from the shelf.

She's pretty certain he'll approve.

Kate pops in the DVD, can already hear the corn popping in the kitchen, the smell of melted butter wafting through the loft.

Castle joins her on the couch a minute later, a large bowl of popcorn in his hands and she smiles up at him affectionately when she sees he's added M&M's to the mix, her favorite.

It reminds her of how far they've come since she'd tentatively agreed to join him for a movie night, what would have been their first date had her mother's case not interfered with their plans.

"So, what'd you pick?" He asks, settling down beside her, pulling her legs to lay across his thighs.

"You'll see soon enough."

And sure enough, when the title screen pops up, he's choking on his popcorn.

"John Woo?" He questions when he manages to get his breathing back under control. "You're intentionally trying to kill me tonight, aren't you?"

She laughs, presses play to start _The Killer_ and nuzzles her nose against his neck. "I thought you'd appreciate a bit of torture," she teases. "In the spirit of Halloween and all that."

He groans, turning his head to brush his nose against hers.

"You were already killing me then," he recalls, thinking back to a time when he'd been so desperate for them to be more than just partners. "Agreeing to join me for a movie night for what would have essentially been a date was definitely the death of me."

"I never would have called it a date back then."

"No, but we both know it was," and yeah, he isn't wrong.

"You ever wonder what would've happened if we'd had that date?" She asks.

"You mean besides you being unable to contain your all-consuming desire for me and jumping me as soon as you could?" she smacks him for that, but she grins despite herself.

"I would _not_ have jumped you the second I got here," she disagrees, her body betraying her words as she leans in to brush a kiss to his jaw. "But maybe when the second movie would have started," she teases, watching his pupils dilate, his desire more than obvious. "When the wine had set in and the nerves had settled…"

And then she's leaning in, catching her mouth with his, opening up to him as their tongues tangle in a lazy battle. Castle quickly sets aside the popcorn bowl on his lap and angles his body toward hers, his large hands gliding up the back of her thighs when she pushes up in her knees, pulling her into him until she's straddling his waist.

"God, Kate, I didn't think I could want you more than I did back then," he mumbled between kisses to her neck, groaning when her hips buck into his and the friction comes close to undoing them both.

"And now? Do you want me now?" She asks breathlessly even though the evidence of his desire for her is quite clear as her hips undulate against his.

"So much," he pants. "Never wanted anyone like I want you." He bites down on the sensitive skin of her neck, marking her as his and she moans at his words.

They don't make it past the opening credits before all thoughts of the movie leave her mind entirely.

* * *

After one frantic round on the couch and a second, more reverent one in the bedroom, they do end up settling down to watch _The Killer,_ or at least part of it, but the kids are bursting through the door before they reach the end.

"Mom, Dad!" Reece rushes towards them, Jake right on his heels with bags of candy filled to the rim. "Look at all the candy we got!"

"This one house even gave out the really _big_ bars!" Jake exclaims.

"No way?" Castle feigns disbelief and Kate smiles at him, combing her hands through his hair once and heads over to the door to find Lily and Alexis.

"Hey, you two," she says, watching as Lily rolls her eyes at the boys in a way Castle says is much too similar to the way Kate does. "How was the dance?"

"It was awesome! They even played _Thriller_ and we did the dance."

"Wow, they're still playing that song?"

"It's a _classic_, Mom," Lily shake her head at her as though it's obvious and, okay Castle may have a point.

"The boys were good?" She asks Alexis, when Lily joins her brothers and father in the living room.

"They were great. No fighting or arguing," Alexis reassures her.

"Good, I'm glad. You're a good influence on them."

Alexis shrugs. "You and Dad are pretty good at the parenting thing; I'm not taking credit for that."

Kate leans in to give the girl a hug but they are quickly interrupted by beckoning from the living room.

"Mom, come see all the Kit-Kats I got!" Reece calls after her.

* * *

Once all the candy was sorted, costumes and makeup removed, and teeth thoroughly brushed, Kate read Lily, Jake, and Reece a story while Castle said goodbye to Alexis downstairs. She wasn't surprised none of them made it past the end of the first chapter before dozing off. The boys are getting heavy, but she's still able to pick them up to transfer them to their separate beds.

She lays a kiss on their foreheads before slipping out of the room and meeting Castle downstairs.

"Alexis said to say bye, she had to get home early."

Kate nods, heading towards him and wrapping her arms around him contently, laying her head to his chest.

"Hey, Kate?"

"Hmm,"

"Earlier, you asked if I ever thought about it, about what would have happened if we'd had that date?"

She lifts her head from his shoulder, curious now.

His eyes are sure when he answers. "Not even for a second."


End file.
